A Premise Salesman with Some Things on His Mind

Living in Post-Democratic America: Tip 2

While conservatives don’t literally up is down and down is up — not quite — they essentially do the same when they describe the world. In a post-democratic America, this could be a real problem, however. If the oligarchs gain more control, it is only a matter of time until your kids will be watching episodes of The Flintstones in history class.

It is important, therefore, to prepare. Already access to libraries is greatly reduced through tax cuts and irresponsible austerity measures. Schools the same. We don’t need no education anyhow, right? Wrong.

A poorly informed populace is exactly what conservatives need, however. It is doing a fine job getting them in power and forwarding their regressive social agenda. So if we’re going to make the next dark age a short one, information will be key.

So do what I do and … while it might sound quaint and old fashioned … buy an old school encyclopedia! Oh imagine the fun you’ll have with the kids when you tell them about the last ice age which happened thousands of years before the Earth even existed. Baffle them with tales about the origins of the universe, physics, and philosophy. Maybe even suggest than fossil fuels are a finite resource. They might look at you strangely, but they’re kids…they’re going to do that anyway.

You might also start downloading and saving important papers and articles to your computer and put them on an external hard drive of some sort. This isn’t a sure thing, however, because technology changes and you have to be sure the computers of tomorrow will be able to access your trove of facts. Really important things, keep a hard copy of those.

You might keep a copy of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 for example because if people like Rand Paul get elected that could come in handy. Imagine the amazement your kids will express when you tell them there was a time when government actually defended the rights of ALL people, regardless of race, class, or income. They might doubt you, but you’ll be prepared with documentary proof.

All this information can get cumbersome — that’s why we supported libraries once upon a time — so you might need to organize friends and family to be responsible for certain subjects of knowledge. We all have an uncle who’s a Civil War buff, for example, right? Ask him to be the keeper of history. You could even trick him into doing so if necessary. Just keep giving him valuable “gifts” in the form of books. You’ll help him, you help yourself, and you might help pull us out of the dark ages of post-democratic America.

Now I hope as much as any other intelligent and informed American that these tips will never be necessary, but we dangerously close. So the most important tip I always have for better and smarter Americans is get out and vote next November. Make sure good and strong people are in office and we shouldn’t need to stash old newspapers under the mattress.